John diok



f UNITED STATES PATENT CFFICE.

JOHN DICK, or NEW YORK, Y.

sauraisA Fon ARTICLES or DRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 12,379, dated February 13, 1855.

To all whom, t may concern K Be it known that I, JOHN DICK, of the city,county, and State of New York, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Stays Applied to Articles of Dress to Prevent or RemoveWrinkles or Greases; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which-Figure 1, is a. side view of the stays, and Fig. 2, an edge view of thesame. Figs. 3 andl 4, are edge views illustrating the action of the staywhen applied to a garment, and

Fig. 5, exhibits its application to a boot.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

This stay is composed of two or more supporting pieces of whalebone,wood,

ratan, steel, or any other material possessing desirable degree ofrigidity and elasticity, having a spring or springs of india rubberwebbing or other suitable elastic ma* terial applied to them in such away as to have a constant tendency to extend them or keep them extendedlengthwise. It is applied to such part of a garment as is liable tobecome wrinkled or creased by the movements of the body or limbs, by itsown weight, by the acts of putting it on or taking it olf or by anyother means, for the purpose of keeping such part in proper shape orreturning it to its proper shape after it has been disarranged; and yetit is capable of contraction to allow freedom of movement of the body orlimbs and to preserve a suicient degree of flexibility to the article ofdress to which it is applied.

The stay represented in the drawing is composed of two supporting piecesa, a', and one spring The supporting pieces are represented to be ofwhalebone, which material I at present consider `to be pref erable toall others as it possesses desirable degrees of rigidity and elasticitycombined with lightness, and is not very expensive. The spring iscomposed of a strip of india rubber webbing but may consist of indiarubber alone or of other elastic material. One end of the spr-ing isconnected by sewing, lacing or otherwise tothe upper end of a, and theother end to the lower end of a. The stay is placed and secured in agarment in substantially the same manner as the busk, and bones ofladies corsets, care bein taken that it is well secured at the ends andthat it is somewhat contracted or not extended to its full length, sothat the spring will have some tension upon it. The section of twopieces c, c, of cloth or material bey tween which, the stay is conned,is represented in Figs. 3, and t, in red color, Fig. 4, showing the staycontracted', its spring b, being extended and the material c, c, beingcreased or wrinkled, and Fig. 3, showing the stay extended contractedand the materialc, c, free from wrinkles.

By applying these stays to boots, I am enabled to construct the legs oflinen or some woven fabric, which is much cheaper, and in every respectas good as and in some respect better than leather, but which, without.

some support, could not be used, as it would not stand up. Boots withlegs made of such materials or of leather may be always kept free fromcreases and thus be prevented from wearing out the pantaloons worn overthem.' To apply the stay to boots, I extend the straps (Z, double alldown the interior of the leg, and place the stay between the inner partl and the outer part 2 of the strap confining it at the edges, and atthe ends by stitching the parts 1 and 2 togetherV or by an eyeletfastening e, which also serves to secure the st-raps to the boot. rlhestraps require to be secured to the boot bot-h at their lower ends andnear the top by stitching as represented by red dots in Fig. 5, or byother means. In order to show the stay in Fig. 5, the boot isrepresented with a piece of the leg torn out and a part of the outerportion 2, of the strap torn away.

rlhe stay may be used in all parts of ladies dress where wooden or steelbusks orv whalebones are commonly employed, and in cont-racting with thestooping or bending of the body will preventpainful pressure by itsends, and prevent its tearing the material of which the dress is made,and forcing itself out endwise. It may also be applied to mens vests toremove the wrinkles caused by sitting and stooping postures, also to thelegs of pantaloons to supply the place of straps under the feet, and toan almost infinite variety of other purposes in wearing apparel.

Instead of two supporting pieces a, a',

three or more may be employed the third and others being applied to theends of a, and 05, with Springs in the same manner as the spring b, isapplied to a and a.

What I claim as In invention and desire to secure by Letters atent iS-The above described improvement in stays as applied to articles ofWearing apparel,

consisting of two or more supporting pieces With a spring or springsapplied to extend 10 them substantially as herein set forth.

JOHN DICK.

Witnesses:

' J. G. lVLAsoN,

WM. TUSCH.

